West Bengal obstructing works of central teams, restraining from visiting hotspots, says MHA

The MHA has claimed that the central teams that visited Bengal have been specifically restrained from making any visits to hotspot areas, interacting with health professionals, and assessing the ground-level situation in the state.

New Delhi: The Union Home Ministry on Tuesday (April 21) wrote a letter to the West Bengal stating that they have been informed that the state government is not cooperating with the central teams visiting the state to assess the COVID-19 situation and have been restraining them from interacting with health workers and touring the affected areas.

In a letter to West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said it has been brought to the notice of the ministry that both the inter-ministerial central teams, visiting Kolkata and Jalpaiguri, have not been provided with the requisite cooperation by the state and local authorities

"In fact, they have been specifically restrained from making any visits, interacting with health professionals, and assessing the ground-level situation in the state. "This amounts to obstructing the implementation of the orders issued by the central government under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and equally binding directions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court," Bhalla said. 

The union home secretary said, therefore, the state government is directed to comply to make all necessary arrangements for the central teams to carry out such responsibilities as have been entrusted to them.

Earlier in the day, during the daily press briefing, Home Ministry Joint Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava also raised the matter and stated that the central government has sent teams under Disaster Management Act to four states - Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. She claimed that while all the three states were extending full support to the teams, the government in West Bengal did not do so.